Rewriting History- Who really did the stone carvings on Victoria Hall

It was George Orwell who, in his novel 1984, gave us the Minis- try of Truth, a body that freely rewrote history.

Thanks to the research of a Cobourg man, Orwell's 'prophecy' was only two years early.

For now, in 1986, local history will be rewritten, thanks to the efforts of Jim Leonard.

After comprehensive re- search, taking him as far away as Ottawa and Toronto, Leonard has proven that the stone carv- ings on the facade of Cobourg s Victoria Hall are the work of his great-great-great-uncle, Charles Thomas Thomas. The work had previously been credited to con- tactor and architect William Thomas.

Leonard told the Cobourg and District Historical Society at a meeting last week that The Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings accepted his findings, with a note, reading in part "I have...filed all of your informa- tion in our own research files; and from now on, at least, we'll be able to give Charles T. Tho- mas his full due when we write about Victoria Hall."

Leonard said that his family had for many years believed "that Charles Thomas was con- tracted to do the stonework, and that he came to Cobourg from Wales, bringing with him a skil- led work team and his three-year old orphaned neice, my maternal great grandmother Mary Thomas."

The family story went on to suggest that "Thomas left Cobourg and was later killed on a bridge construction project somewhere in the United States."

But with several sources iden- tifying William Thomas as the stone cutter. Leonard decided he wanted to try to set the historical record straight. "Since I had to refute the accepted historical consensus to do this, I needed to find new primary evidence that would clearly link Charles Tho- mas to Cobourg and to Victoria Hall," he said.

He started with back issues of the Cobourg Star and Edwin C. Guillet's Cobourg 1798-1948.

Leonard said that Cobourg historian Peter Stokes had writ- ten that the architect of the hall, Kivas Tully, "hoped to surpass William Thomas's St. Lawrence Hall on his own Cobourg project.

"Why then would he have used William Thomas himself, to help do this?"

Leonard searched the working papers of William and David Burnet, the hall's general con- tractor, in the Ontario Public Archives, but the information yielded, only references to "Mr. Thomas."

Leonard said the poll book for the south ward of Cobourg, Dec. 31, 1857: Cobourg's assessment roll for 1859; and a June 1, 1859 deed between Thomas and Tho- mas Scott, the town postmaster, identify Thomas as a stone cutter.

But the most conclusive evi- dence came after Leonard checked the Ontario surrogate court records, finding a probate application which said Thomas, a resident of Ottawa, died in late December, 1867.

But the bonanza came for Leonard when he located Tho- mas's obituary in the Dec. 28 issue of the Ottawa Times.

"Mr. Thomas was...engaged as subcontractor in the erection of many important buildings on this continent. The present national monument at Queen- ston...was erected under his su- pervision...so was the Town Hall in Cobourg, the latter considered to be one of the handsomest buildings in the Dominon."

The obituary also says that Thomas "was, during the erec- tion of the Departmental Build- ings in this city, Chief Superin- tendant of Works." Those de- partmental buildings, Leonard says, are the east and west blocks of the Parliament Build- ings.